Simplicity
by YukiwaFuru
Summary: Sometimes the simplest approach is the best. But in life, the simplest answer isn't often the easiest. Uzumaki Naruto knows this better than anyone. Genfic, rated M for language.
1. Simplicity

So, I'm back and with a chapter and a half of a new story written. Honestly, I like my other stories and will probably finish at least the major ones eventually, but this idea stuck in my head... So, sorry if you were hoping for an update of another fic, here's what I got for now. Hoping this'll help me be motivated for my other fics.

Disclaimed.

"Naruto, you fail." Iruka announced with a heavy heart to the small boy standing before him. He may have been wary and distrustful towards the young jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, but he had never seen the child say an unkind word to anyone. More than that, he had witnessed Naruto defending the younger children from bullying even though it'd gotten him beaten up more than once. After seeing that, he'd known the boy was no monster, whatever anyone else thought.

As the boy quietly nodded and left the testing room, Iruka sighed unhappily. Despite Naruto's reticence, he'd become fond of the boy's gentleness and hated to see him fail because of a single jutsu. Naruto was average in most areas, not extraordinary, but passable. It was only the boy's chakra control that was unusually lacking. And without the ability to perform bunshin no jutsu, he would never be allowed to become a genin. It was a waste. Even though there'd been another boy in the year before who'd been given an exemption, the teacher's council had voted not to grant one to Naruto.

With a shake of his head, Iruka straightened the paperwork on his desk and prepared to present the results of the exam to the Hokage. He wasn't looking forward to breaking the news to the Hokage, knowing of his love for the quiet boy.

–

Naruto sat on the swing, watching as the parents congratulated their children on becoming genin. Hokage-jiji had promised to buy him ramen if he passed the exams and he didn't want to disappoint the grandfatherly old man, but there was no chance that Naruto would ever become a ninja. While he was watching the other kids, admittedly day-dreaming about what having parents might be like, he failed to notice the chuunin that had come up to stand next to him.

"Naruto-kun, I'm sorry about today." Mizuki said in a sickeningly sweet tone.

Naruto looked up at the man standing over him, masking his surprise. Day-dreaming was dangerous.

"Try to understand, Iruka just wants to make sure his students are ready to become ninja. He's strict because he cares." Mizuki continued kindly.

It was unnerving. Naruto knew the man hated him, had seen the familiar look in his eyes often enough, but right now he looked completely sincere. It was scary how easily ninja lied.

"But I believe that given the chance, you could prove that you're ready to pass. There's a special retest that you can take tonight. You want to become a genin, right?" Mizuki's smile was just a tad too toothy.

Transfixed, Naruto nodded his head. What was Mizuki up to?

"All you have to do is take the scroll of sealing from the Hokage's library. If you can learn a technique from the scroll, then you can become a genin." Mizuki finished with satisfaction.

Naruto turned back to stare at his _former_ classmates, pondering his options. What would happen if he said no? He didn't really want to find out.

He turned back to Mizuki. "Even a genin can't get past tower security." He stated skeptically.

Mizuki smiled in approval. "Security will be lowered for tonight. You think you can't do it?" He asked with a mocking sneer.

Naruto stood up from his swing with a nod of his head. "I can do it. Where do you want to meet?"

Mizuki laughed, "There's a clearing on the other side of the river by the Nara lands. Meet me there at nine. That'll give you an hour to learn a jutsu. Still think you can do it?" His face was beginning to fill with malicious delight and Naruto had to look away.

"I will." He said simply before turning and walking away. He didn't like showing his back to the ninja, but he didn't want to look at the man anymore. He took out his toad wallet and checked the contents. He had just enough for a bowl of Ichiraku's miso pork ramen. If he was gonna live through the night, he would need some food in his belly.

–

Security really was light at the tower that night. Just a couple of chuunin guarding the doors, as far as he could tell. He wondered how Mizuki had managed to pull that off.

He walked up to the chuunin. "Good evening, I'd like to speak to the Hokage please." He said. No harm in being polite.

The one on the left with a scar on his cheek nodded and opened the door for him. It was a standing order that all the Tower guards were given. If Naruto wanted to speak to the Hokage he was to be let in unless the old man was in a private meeting. It was a privilege very few were given and he'd made sure never to abuse it. 'First time for everything' he thought with a regretful sigh.

He made his way to the Hokage's library and slipped in. The Scroll of Sealing was kept in the center of the room. The security seemed nonexistent, but Naruto knew the alarm would sound as soon as the scroll was moved. He'd once seen the Hokage deactivate it though, and ran through the seals before touching the seal on the scroll, hoping he'd gotten it right.

To his relief, nothing happened when he picked it up and he quietly headed to the nearest window in the hallway. He also ran smack dab into the Hokage.

The man quirked an eyebrow at Naruto in question while he regained his balance. "Naruto, why do you have the Scroll of Sealing?"

With another sigh, Naruto grimaced. "Sorry Jiji, but I need to borrow this for a bit."

With that, he disappeared with a shunshin, already running towards the meeting place. He had barely an hour before Mizuki would find him. He needed to hurry.

–

Sarutobi watched the boy disappear with a thoughtful look on his face. Naruto wasn't the type to go out of his way without good reason.

One of his ANBU guards dropped down in front of him. "Hokage-sama?"

Sarutobi hmmed as he took out his pipe. "Follow but don't interfere unless you have to."

The ANBU nodded slightly before disappearing.

The Hokage lit his pipe as he headed to his office, wanting to see what was happening for himself.

Just as he was taking out his crystal ball though, his office door burst open showing a crowd of angry looking ninja.

"Hokage-sama, the demon has stolen the Scroll of Sealing!" The man in front yelled in panic.

Sarutobi looked at the portrait of his successor on the wall briefly, suppressing a sigh.

Not for the first time he thought, 'I am too damned old for this.'

–

Naruto panted, stubbornly stamping down on the dizziness he felt. This clone jutsu was difficult, but he'd almost gotten to the point where he could make only one. It hadn't taken him too much time to make a dozen or so clones, but getting the number down was excruciatingly difficult. Even if his control was decent, this new jutsu required him to control all of it while it split. That was easier said than done.

He got up determinedly, looking around the darkening clearing. He was so close. Once he got this jutsu down, his training would go much faster. He formed the cross sign and called out "kage bunshin no jutsu" once again. Sweat broke out on his forehead from while he struggled with his chakra, but after a moment a single clone appeared next to him. It looked around triumphantly before giving him a thumbs up and expelling with a puff.

Finally, he'd gotten it.

He slumped to the ground to rest before Mizuki arrived, leaning heavily on the Scroll of Sealing and taking deep breaths.

–

Twenty minutes later and his sense of accomplishment had disappeared altogether. He stared as Mizuki explained that he was the Kyuubi and Iruka struggled to explain. He'd never meant for his teacher to get hurt. He genuinely liked the man.

Once he saw that Iruka was lost for words though, he decided to cut his losses. He grabbed the Scroll and ran off, knowing that Mizuki would follow him. From the moment this began, it was between him and Mizuki. He didn't want to have to decide whether or not to defend a man who thought he was a demon.

The wind whipped his face as he used shunshin to escape. He heard yelling behind him and stopped to hide.

As he heard Iruka defend him, he felt nothing short of awe. He'd never given the man a reason to trust him, but here he was giving him the benefit of the doubt. Even though his parents had been killed in the kyuubi attack.

He jumped out not even trying to control his chakra this time. "Touch Iruka-sensei and I'll kill you." He said in a calm and menacing tone. Mizuki didn't listen. The rest, as they say, is history.

–

The day after Uzumaki Naruto became a genin was quite possibly the most bittersweet day of his life. He'd gained the acceptance and love of a person who'd been one of the only constants in his turbulent life. Iruka, while boring to listen to and easy to anger, truly cherished Naruto as only another orphan could. Somehow on that night they'd become the one thing Naruto wanted most- a family. He knew that no matter what happened Iruka would always defend him and worry for him. It was nice.

On the other hand, he'd discovered the reason for his blighted existence. _The Kyuubi_. It was something so horrible, so overwhelming that he couldn't think the name and breath at the same time. Inside _him_. No wonder he was hated. He hated being the jinchuuriki and hated that the villagers thought he was no different from the demon within him. Most of all, he hated being so hopeless in the face of something he didn't choose and couldn't change.

With so many different thoughts and feelings swirling in his head, it was no surprise that he'd spent the day day-dreaming (again) on top of the Yondaime's head. He didn't miss the irony, but was unwilling to forsake his usual thinking spot even for the Sandaime's stone head. His admiration for the man hadn't changed, but it was tempered with a hint of bitterness that he couldn't ignore. It felt like his greatest hero had failed him. Even if it was to save the entire village, it still stung.

To distract himself his thoughts turned to the new jutsu he had learned. The Kage Bunshin was perhaps the most awesome jutsu he had ever heard of. He wasn't particularly strong at taijutsu, but his massive amounts of chakra made ninjutsu difficult to control and genjutsu impossible. A jutsu like Kage Bunshin that could split his chakra into smaller amounts was a godsend. That wasn't even considering the benefits of receiving the clone's memories, the clone's invulnerability to genjutsu, and it's ability to execute taijutsu attacks. It was practically made to cover his weaknesses while accentuating his strengths. Why fight his own battles when his chakra could do it for him? Too bad it was barely as solid as his henge.

…

At that moment, Naruto had one of those intuitive flashes of understanding that some would come to consider genius, but which most would see as no more than a highly advanced form of stupidity.

'Why...is my henge as solid as my bunshin?' He wondered incredulously.

Even though he knew that henge was a genjutsu, he'd never thought about the implications of the fact that he could made an illusion solid. After all, if he could do it then his clones could do it. The possibilities were staggering.

But hell, he barely even understood how the regular henge worked. He wouldn't be able to figure out the difference between his oiroke no justu and the regular henge just by thinking about it. He'd always learned jutsu through sheer dint of determination. He knew next to nothing about jutsu theory.

The same could be said of the shunshin, for which he'd refused ramen for a whole week to show Sandaime-jiji how serious he was about learning it. Even ramen couldn't compare to the allure of being as speedy as the ninja that often chased him.

Eventually the Sandaime had caved to his pouting and given him the jutsu scroll with some written advice for his tenth birthday. It'd taken over a year to learn to control the technique, but it was his greatest source of pride as a ninja. Well, before he'd learned Kage Bunshin, at least.

Even as Naruto smiled in reminiscence, his mind raced ahead. If he could make henge more solid than it was supposed to be, then why not Kage Bunshin? True, one was basic genjutsu and the other was an advanced ninjutsu, but in both cases he would be making a chakra construct more solid than it ought to be. If he was able to do so with one, then he would eventually be able to do so with the other.

As mentioned previously, this was an absurdly stupid way of thinking. But the insight underlying his train of thought was nothing short of pure genius. No one else would have derived such a ridiculous answer from such a simple question.

That simplistic way of thinking would become both Naruto's greatest asset and his greatest weakness.

For now, though, naïve dreams of greatness were swimming through Naruto's head, easily chasing away any lingering disquiet in the young boy's mind.

–

Kakashi was a man that people underestimated. For all his fearsome reputation in the ninja world, he constantly encountered ninja that would swear that he was a weak opponent...until he killed them, that is.

He was a man in his late twenties that had over two decades of experience as a ninja. In addition to that he had one of the best mission records of anyone in the history of ANBU, excepting only his sensei. He rarely failed missions and almost never lost comrades on the field of battle.

His fighting style was subtle and efficient, focused on protecting his allies and exploiting his enemies' weaknesses with a minimum amount of expended effort. His reliability was legendary and he had often been entrusted with the task of supervising ANBU rookies while he was an active member of the elite corps.

For all of this, he remained an unassuming personage, calmly avoiding the spotlight and focusing on completing his missions. He didn't want to accidentally wind up Hokage, after all.

So he was surprised to find himself a bit ruffled after an encounter with his most boisterous student.

-Flashback-

He knew the boy had potential, but he always acted like an uncouth idiot. What made the situation even weirder was that by all accounts Naruto had been a calm and quiet boy while in the academy. As for his genin teammates, they didn't really notice the change because they'd never really noticed him much in the first place, both preoccupied with other things (or people, rather.)

But he'd been puzzled by the boy's behavior since meeting him. The boy seemed to be purposely trying to distract people from noticing his abilities. At first he'd assumed it was merely a result of finding out that he was the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, but after the last mission he was less sure.

Despite Naruto's potential, he'd been unable to defeat Haku without unleashing the Kyuubi and had needed Sasuke to save him when they'd been surrounded by the ice mirrors. Since then, he'd been training by himself feverishly. Kakashi hadn't bothered to find out what his student was working on- it was poor ninja etiquette to spy on a comrade training, even a student- but he knew the boy was serious when he sought Kakashi out for help with his taijutsu.

That had been a week after the mission to Wave. Since then, he'd taken to sending a kage bunshin off with the boy and he was quite happy with the genin's progress. If things kept up like this he would consider nominating his team for the chuunin exam that was coming up soon, although ideally he'd like for Sakura to show some more interest in training before he did.

He was pondering over whether his team was actually ready (or rather his clone was) when Naruto abruptly broke off from their training session.

"Sensei, what's the sharingan? You and Sasuke both have it, but if you ask me it looks more like a bad case of pink eye than anything useful." Naruto said with a dubious look on his face.

Kakashi blinked at the random question, bemused by his student's characterization of the rare doujutsu.

"Well...the Sharingan is the bloodline limit of the Uchiha clan. When fully matured, it allows the user to discern the most minute details of their surroundings and commit them perfectly to memory. This leads to a multitude of possible uses depending on the skill of the user.

Generally, though, the sharingan allows the user to predict their opponents movements by reading muscle twitches, copy any ninjutsu that uses hand seals, and see the flaws in most genjutsu. Theoretically, taijutsu masters have the best chance of defeating a sharingan user, since they usually learn not to telegraph their movements and have reaction times that the sharingan can't usually keep up with. However, it's not impossible to overcome the sharingan using any of the three main branches of jutsu. It all depends on the relative skill of the combatants."

Kakashi hated lecturing and almost never answered questions directly, preferring instead to let people figure things out for themselves. Still, he couldn't deny curiosity as to what Naruto would do with the information. It was the first time Naruto had asked him a question about the ninja arts.

The boy still looked skeptical. "But doesn't it use a lot of chakra? You past out after using it to fight Zabuza. If there are really so many ways of beating it, it doesn't seem worth the trouble."

Kakashi sighed, _this_ was why he avoided answering people's questions. Most people mistook a willingness to answer one question for a willingness to answer _all _their questions.

"I'm not an Uchiha, so it's much more tiring when I use the Sharingan. For an Uchiha, it takes very little chakra to maintain the Sharingan during combat." He answered off-handedly, hoping his student would be satisfied and stop asking questions.

Naruto looked pensive for a moment.

"That doesn't really answer my question. Even if it's worth it to an Uchiha, why do you use it?"

Kakashi resisted the urge to twitch in annoyance. The Sharingan eye had been a gift from Obito. He wasn't really happy to hear his student talk so disparagingly about it. At least the brat didn't ask where he'd gotten his left eye from like Sasuke had.

"Against a strong enough opponent, it's worth the chakra drain to use it." He asked, as unflappable as ever.

Naruto stared at him in disbelief. "But you and Zabuza were both jounin right? He didn't need a special eye to fight you. Was he really that much stronger than you, sensei?"

This time he couldn't resist a slight twitch of his hidden eyebrow.

"Yes." He answered evenly.

Naruto merely looked puzzled.

"But Iruka-sensei said that you're the strongest jounin in the village."

The boy shook his head in consternation.

"Being a jounin-sensei's making you lazy, Kakashi-sensei. You should train more without your Sharingan. What would we have done if you'd died from chakra exhaustion from overusing your Sharingan eye?"

Kakashi merely eye-smiled at blond-haired genin.

"Maa, but I didn't, did I?" He answered easily.

With that he ended the conversation and restarted the aborted training session. But despite his non-chalance, the boy's question remained on his mind, troubling him for the rest of the day.

-End Flashback-

For the first time, he considered the wisdom of relying so much on the Sharingan. He knew using it had its drawbacks, but it'd saved his life so many times over the years that he'd gotten used to using it in combat against powerful opponents.

It helped him avoid traps and generally it wasn't worth taking the risk of being caught off guard just to conserve chakra. Still...perhaps it would be better if he focused on fighting without it as much as possible in the future.

Still, it was somewhat disconcerting that it was his student that had managed to make him question his own fighting style. He knew better than to think it was just a random comment on Naruto's part. The boy really seemed to be thinking seriously on the best ways to fight effectively.

Truthfully, that sort of practical thinking reminded him of himself when he was that age and trying to out think Minato-sensei during team spars. He'd been pretty good at it despite the way he'd foolishly treated his teammates as liabilities.

But that was all part of the past now, one of many painful memories that he refused to dwell on too much. Still, if his student was going to make the effort to fight smarter despite his natural inclination towards being a knuckle-head, Kakashi would willingly help the boy when he asked for it.

Truthfully, he would do the same for any of his students, although the other two showed no sign of requesting assistance themselves. Most of the time he saw no reason to go out of his way to guide his team's training.

It was important for a ninja to take the initiative themselves regarding their development. And besides, he had more important things to do; just because he was a jounin-sensei didn't mean he wasn't still taking short-term missions on the side. He would leave the nagging to Iruka.

–

Despite his determination in the area of jutsu improvement, Naruto had had very little time to actually going through with his plans. By the time the Chuunin exam started, he'd barely mastered using Oiroke no jutsu for anything other than pranks and it wasn't much use in the combat that ensued.

He'd discovered to his dismay that the bigger the size difference between himself and whatever he transformed into, the more difficult it was and the more chakra it required. In other words, not only couldn't he transform into anything smaller than himself; transforming into anything much bigger required _a lot_ more chakra.

Add to that the fact that a solid hit could undo the jutsu and he'd ended up spending a lot of time perfecting the henge. Especially since he'd wanted to be able to do it seal-less to be able to transform faster. It could only be used effectively for spying if he could reapply it almost instantly.

He sometimes wondered if it was worth the trouble focusing so much on the academy three. He'd also started altering the kage bunshin and the kawarimi only to find that doing so was even more difficult than working on the henge. It required so much effort, enough so that he wouldn't have bothered if it didn't seem like it would be worth it in the long run.

Fortunately his efforts had begun to bear fruit. He'd discovered that the reason his henge was different was because his chakra had some of the Kyuubi's mixed in with it. He didn't really like using Kyuubi's chakra, but he'd sucked it up and worked on focusing the chakra and putting more of it into the henge to find that it did stabilize the jutsu a great deal.

The intensive meditation required had had an unpleasant side-effect, however. The Baka-kitsune had made his presence felt and proceeded to mercilessly rib him for his reliance on the red chakra. He'd been too happy to really resent the Kyuubi's harassment though once his henge didn't dispel from a single punch anymore,.

Eventually he'd had the additional breakthrough that while he couldn't henge into anything smaller than himself, his clones had no such difficulty. He'd jumped around for a good half hour after discovering that. He'd been ecstatic even though they had to expel most of their chakra into the jutsu to do it and consequently didn't last very long-yet.

He was determined to get around that somehow although he still couldn't figured it out. He hoped that when he managed to fully stabilize the Kyuubi's chakra when making clones that the potent chakra would make it easier for his clones to stay henge'd into smaller forms longer, but admittedly it was a long shot.

As for the kage bunshin, adding more of the Kyuubi's chakra hadn't helped much, while making it a lot harder to even make the clones in the first place. He'd spent endless hours trying to stabilize and split his chakra for the jutsu and when he managed it his clones still couldn't take more than a couple solid hits and on top of that using jutsu became impossible for them. For whatever reason, the clones couldn't control the Kyuubi's chakra anywhere near as well as he could.

Still, it was progress, but not nearly enough to satisfy him. It wasn't until after the battle of the chuunin exam final that he had enough time to try to solve that particular problem. He almost couldn't bring himself to continue working on it after finding out the Sandaime was dead, but after having his clones beat on him a bit- and having a close call with the Kyuubi's chakra in the process, he threw himself into his work with near reckless abandon.

After getting nowhere for awhile, he sheepishly admitted to himself that effort alone wouldn't cut it. Also, he was giving himself a headache concentrating so hard. He finally calmed down enough to think about the problem calmly and after a full day he concluded that it wasn't working because the clones lacked physical substance.

He had a theory that using blood might help make the clones better in more ways than one, but how was he supposed to bind the chakra and blood together? All the complications that came with jutsu improvement made him realize why so few ninja ever bothered.

After all, why spend so much time inventing or improving jutsu and risk wasting your effort when you could just master jutsu that already existed? You would still have an edge in combat and it would save you time, too.

On second thought though, if he really wanted to be a great ninja (not to mention Hokage) he'd have to create his own jutsu eventually. Every Hokage was known for their unique jutsu that made them unbeatable by anything but sheer numbers or a serious disadvantage.

The exception was the Sandaime Hokage, whose mastery of the ninja arts was so complete that creating new jutsu had become practically unnecessary. The old man had once told him that the only jutsu he'd created himself were non-combat jutsu- a fact that still shocked Naruto even today. Apparently a significant portion of the jutsu that Konoha used in the course of its daily operations had actually been invented by the Sandaime Hokage.

The Shodai used his ability to control the bijuu to secure the village's place in the world, the Nidaime was an organizational master and political genius that provided the concrete foundation and political alliances that the village came to depend on, but in the end it was the Sandaime's creations that kept the village running smoothly enough to survive two additional wars. Just as the Yondaime was unmatched in dealing with external threats, the Sandaime was the master of the mundane.

Naruto knew better than to think that he was capable of something like that. Even though he looked up basic information on a number of subjects in order to have a basic understanding of the ninja arts and the ninja world, he still wasn't much for studying. He still preferred to figure things out himself.

Which is exactly what he did. He spend the first couple days of the trip to find Tsunade trying to thing of a way to create a clone using blood. It didn't help that he didn't know anything about creating clones from solid objects.

Even as he struggled to burst the rubber ball in order to learn Rasengan, he was still thinking about it.

When it finally burst, he was euphoric (once he woke up.) Not only had he gotten closer to mastering the Rasengan, he'd also gotten a clue about how to make what he was officially calling the chi kage bunshin (blood shadow clone.)

When he finally realized he needed to expel his chakra as quickly as possible to create enough pressure to burst the ball, he realized that that might help with his chi bunshin as well. He remembered the way the med nin had used their chakra to literally keep the blood in Lee's body after his legs were crushed. If you could use chakra to keep the blood in, then why not use it to pull it out?

If he cut his hand and expelled his chakra quickly enough to mix the blood and chakra together, then maybe he could create a clone with the resulting substance. It was dangerous- his chakra wasn't anywhere near as good as a med-nin's and adding Kyuubi's chakra to the mix would make it even more difficult.

There was also the danger of losing so much blood and chakra from his arm all at once. If he messed it up, he could lose his arm or even die blood loss. The chi kage bunshin was definitely gonna be a kinjutsu. He decided to hold off trying it until after he mastered the Rasengan. He figured his chakra control would be good enough if he could perform the A-rank jutsu one-handed like Jiraiya could.

And he did. His training with his kage bunshin made it so he could perform a one-handed Rasengan by the end of the agreed-upon week. He was justifiably proud, but his brush with death made him wish that he'd already mastered the chi bunshin. It also renewed his resolve to find a way to improve the kawarimi no jutsu as soon as possible. He couldn't use the Rasengan effectively if he couldn't catch his enemy by surprise and keep them from counter-attacking.

Shizune was a bit confused when he discreetly asked her to explain how med-nin moved blood. Fortunately it was one of the few medical techniques that didn't require too much control, although it was still dangerous if done incorrectly.

He told her it was so he could keep his comrades from bleeding to death if any were injured as badly as Lee in the future. While being able to do so would be good, he didn't intend to ever let any of his friends get hurt to that extent. He didn't like lying to a comrade, but he didn't want to be stopped from trying his new jutsu either.

After that he carefully practiced away from the others every chance he got. If they wondered at his paleness by the end of each day they didn't comment on it. Thanks to the Kyuubi he was fine by the morning although he had to consume a lot of food and water to make up the difference.

Shizune was a godsend. She patiently answered all his questions and made sure he got enough to eat (cause Tsunade and Jiraiya were cheapskates.) On top of that, she must have explained what he was doing to the two sannin because they didn't question him about it.

Still, he received considering looks from Tsunade every once in awhile. She looked at him like she was sizing him up for something, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what. Honestly, it was kind of creepy.

But by the time they made it back to Konoha (Tsunade was in no hurry) he had mostly mastered the technique. It was hell to learn cause he had to cut himself pretty deeply to get enough blood out. On top of that, his clones couldn't help, so he could literally say that he earned that jutsu through sweat blood and tears (it hurt, dammit.)

He'd also successfully infused his blood with a balance of his and the Kyuubi's chakra. It took every ounce of his control to expel the combination in a steady stream, and he still didn't know if he could do it fast enough to keep the mass cohesive.

He practiced that over the next week while Sasuke was kept in the hospital and Lee's surgery went forward. One of his clones managed to convince Tenten to show him how to make storage scrolls that would hopefully hold his chi bunshin together. By the time he went to visit Sasuke and Lee in the hospital at the end of the week he had just about gotten the mix of blood and two types of chakra to stay together smoothly enough to keep the jutsu from failing.

Thankfully he'd learned to do kage bunshin seal-less a month before, so that was one less thing he had to focus on. When he saw Sasuke awake and recalled all the times he'd seen his teammate in the hospital over the past few months, he resolved to make his first chi bunshin that night. He needed to move onto kawarimi as soon as possible. If he was right, it would be the most combat ready of the three.

What he hadn't expected was Sasuke to practically demand that the two of them fight before he was even released from the hospital. He thought about refusing, but one look at his teammate's almost animalistic expression made him realize that the slightly older boy wouldn't listen. He smiled to cover up his unease and proceeded to do his best to beat the shit out of the other genin once they reached the roof.

He left that fight feeling frustrated and angry at both Sasuke and himself. He'd accomplished nothing in that fight beside scaring Sakura and disappointing both of his sensei. He couldn't help it, dammit! It felt like Sasuke was fading out of his reach and he just _knew_ that if he didn't fight the other boy earnestly that what was left of their nebulous friendship would crumble completely.

Despite his frustration and tiredness, he followed through with his decision to complete the chi bunshin that night. In years to come he would consider this one of the best decisions he had ever made.

–

If his hand could have moved it would have trembled. Encased as it was in the flesh of his teammate however, it was held still except for the slight vibration of Naruto's shredded heart as it struggled to beat.

The warmth and wetness of his best friends dying flesh made Sasuke gag as much as the coppery smell of blood on the air. He hastily yanked his arm out of Naruto's broken body; staring blankly as the other boys' body fell backwards at his feet.

His hand brushed absently over his scratched hitai-ate, the dobe had always kept his word, even in death. He yanked his hitai-ate off and let it drop to the ground as he slumped forward tiredly over his friend's body. He wanted to pass out, but all he could do was stare.

He hadn't meant to kill him. The scratch to his hitai-ate had been deep enough to lightly cut his forehead. The pain had caused him to miss and ram his chidori straight into Naruto's heart instead of his lung like he'd been aiming for.

He needed to leave before the others arrived. Even if he had second thoughts it was too late now. He'd made his decision, killed his best friend in the pursuit of revenge and he wouldn't regret it, wouldn't waste that sacrifice.

But as the rain fell down, forming tracks down his face in place of tears he couldn't cry, he found himself unable to move. After a minute he finally began the slow process of standing up, but before he could even straighten up completely, two things happened almost simultaneously.

The body beneath him dissolved into a pool of blood and moments later a punch caught him across the cheek. He'd barely had time to widen his eyes and feel a sort of shocked relief before his head hit the ground and he lost consciousness.

–

When Naruto walked into the village the rain was still pouring down. Sasuke was slung over his shoulder and Kakashi walked by his side. His other squad members had already returned, carried or escorted by med-nin. Even Shikamaru had quickly run back to the village, impatient to learn as much as he could about the fate of the shinobi under his first command.

Naruto was exhausted after using so much of the Kyuubi's chakra against Sasuke. His sensei and the med-nin had offered to carry Sasuke, but Naruto had insisted on carrying him himself. Kakashi had stayed with him in case Sasuke woke up and so they were the last to return to the village.

Sakura was waiting anxiously for them and when she saw Naruto and Sasuke she ran forward, crying in relief. One glance showed her that Naruto was unharmed and so she turned her attention to Sasuke as he was laid out on the stretcher. Except for the scratch on his forehead and a blooming bruise on his cheek he was unmarked. A little pale but still alive.

She moved to follow as the med-nin started to carry him to the hospital but hesitated, looking back at Naruto uncertainly. She wanted to thank him, but the stony look on his face as he stared at Sasuke's still form actually intimidated her a little.

She almost asked what happened before thinking better of it. Instead she quickly stepped forward and pulled Naruto into a hug, whispering a heartfelt 'thank you' in his ear before quickly running after the med-nin, blushing a little in embarrassment.

Naruto stared after him teammates for a moment before relaxing his stiff posture a bit, a slightly bitter smile gracing his lips before he sighed. He looked over to see Kakashi watching him, having observed the exchange silently.

"Ready to report?" The copy-nin asked, an uncharacteristic gentleness tingeing his voice.

Naruto nodded slightly and they took to the roofs, headed in the direction of the Hokage Tower.

–

"After I knocked him unconscious, I carried him back to Konoha. Kakashi-sensei caught up with us halfway and we walked the rest of the way back together." Naruto concluded in an almost toneless voice.

The Godaime Hokage looked torn between going to break all the Uchiha's limbs and walking around her desk to hug the obviously upset genin. She knew exactly what it was like to have a teammate try to kill you, and while Orochimaru hadn't come as close to succeeding as Sasuke had, the feeling of betrayal was the same.

She briefly contemplated simply throwing the Uchiha boy in jail and throwing away the key, but knew that that wouldn't help matters. It would only make the treasonous genin more likely to run as soon as he was let out. If she was going to go that far, it'd be safer to kill the boy and ensure that Orochimaru never got his hands on him.

But she knew the council would never allow it. Naruto probably wouldn't either, even as angry as he was with his teammate at the moment. She sighed, there was only one other way to handle the situation.

"Kakashi, I'm assigning you to watch Uchiha Sasuke effective immediately. Orochimaru will be after him again, sooner rather than later. There's also the chance that he'll try to defect again. Until further notice he will be staying with you. Needless to say, you wont be taking any high-ranking missions in that time.

Don't let him out of your sight. He's to be kept locked up while you sleep as well; I've sent word to the hospital to keep him in the prisoner's ward. This was too close a call; we can't afford any more trouble while the village is still vulnerable to attack. It's bad enough that I'll have to take you off missions for the time being. I'll leave the rest up to your discretion." She said grimly.

_'Punishment'_ was left unsaid, but Kakashi nodded, understanding the unspoken message. Naruto merely stood there, looking tired and ready to be dismissed. He just wanted to get some rest and be left alone for awhile.

Tsunade turned her attention to him next. "Naruto, you're dismissed, but I'll want to talk to you about this chi bunshin of yours later." She said authoritatively before continuing more softly.

"You did a good job. Get some rest, brat."

Naruto merely nodded tiredly before walking out of the office without a word.

Tsunade exchanged a worried look with Kakashi.

"You think he'll be ok?"

Kakashi nodded confidently.

"It might take awhile, but he'll be fine. He's just tired. Making that bunshin and then fighting today must have taken a lot out of him. Given some time, he'll bounce back."

Tsunade hesitated before nodding after a moment. Naruto wasn't the type to let things drag him down for long.

"What do you think of this chi kage bunshin of his?" Kakashi asked pensively. His knowledge of the kage bunshin jutsu and the blood manipulation technique that Naruto had combined it with wasn't a thorough as Tsunade's even though he could use both himself. As an expert med-nin and the grand-daughter of the man that had invented both techniques, she had him at a bit of a disadvantage.

Tsunade looked thoughtful.

"It's amazing, really. I'm almost certain that the technique wouldn't work without either a very robust chakra, very fine chakra control, or some sort of seal reinforcement. In Naruto's case, his chakra and the Kyuubi's provide the necessary cohesion, although it's impressive that he can control it well enough to stabilize the jutsu.

Even then, for it to last until the bunshin bleeds out is nothing short of miraculous. His mastery of kage bunshin must be extremely advanced to create such a life-like clone. I may have been right about him having a talent for iryou-ninjutsu, although his poor chakra control would make it practically impossible to the more complicated techniques.

Shizune has already asked my permission to train him to learn what he can, and if he agrees I've a mind to approve her request."

She paused before continuing with a frown.

"I'll need to see him perform the technique in person before I can clear him to use in in the future though. It clearly qualifies as an A-rank kinjutsu and I need to make sure he's not damaging his tenketsu or circulatory system when he uses it. I suspect the Kyuubi will have already healed any damage he sustained in performing it yesterday."

Kakashi nodded with a twinkle in his eye. "I doubt he'll listen even if you forbid him from using it." Tsunade scowled darkly, unintentionally forming twin dents in the table her arms were resting on.

Kakashi watched in fascination before deciding to change the subject.

"The chi bunshin will have to be added to the scroll of seals. I believe that will make him the youngest ninja to create a jutsu that's powerful enough to be counted among the most dangerous in Konoha's arsenal."

Tsunade smirked arrogantly. "I'd expect nothing less of the boy that managed to get the Shodai's necklace from me."

Kakashi hmmed in agreement.

"I'll want your opinion on Sasuke by the end of the month, Kakashi. I'll give the boy one more chance, but I wont be so lenient a second time." Not waiting for an answer she waved her hand in dismissal. "That's all. I'll expect your report on my desk by tomorrow afternoon."

Kakashi bowed and disappeared in a whirl of leaves.

Tsunade rubbed her temples as she looked at the paperwork that still littered her desk. This job was already shaping up to be more trouble than it was worth. How had the brat convinced her to become Hokage again? Oh yah, she lost a bet. Not for the first time she bemoaned both her horrid luck and her gambling addiction.

Oh well, at least when she was losing nothing else went wrong. God knew she'd been winning far too often lately for her comfort.

–

As fate would have it, the day Naruto brought Sasuke back to the village was the last day that Team 7 would be gathered in one place for almost three years. Sakura went to visit Sasuke daily although he flat out refused to acknowledge her, preferring to brood in silence instead.

As for Naruto, he avoided both Sasuke and Kakashi knowing that if he saw one he'd have to see the other as well. Sakura tried to get him to talk to her and tell her what had happened on that mission, but whenever she mentioned it he would clam up, becoming almost as distant as Sasuke.

She felt so helpless; she'd been helpless to stop Sasuke and now she was helpless to bring her team back together. Kakashi, at least, acted no different, seemingly confident that things would resolve themselves in time.

Sakura tried to be reassured by her sensei's confidence, but she knew how stubborn both boys could be when they wanted. She needed something to distract herself with, so when she heard from one of the nurses at the hospital that the Godaime was expanding the medic training program and looking for genin with good chakra control to join it, she filled out an application on the same day.

She was pleasantly surprised when she was told she would be one of the few tested to join the new training program. Maybe if she did well, she would get the chance to train under the Godaime herself although she wasn't holding her breath.

When she told Kakashi the good news (Sasuke didn't react, as usual) he gave her his heartfelt congratulations, mentioning that Naruto would be studying under Jiraiya outside the village for the next year. He said it so off-handedly, as if one of the team wouldn't be _gone_ for the next three years.

Sasuke did react then. He gave Kakashi a hard stare that the man ignored, only turning away after a full minute had gone by without any more information being given. Sakura felt left out yet again. For all her lack of skill in combat, she was sharp as a tack. She knew there was something the two males knew that they weren't telling her.

If Naruto was leaving the village in order to train and wouldn't even be visiting for three years, there had to be a reason for it. She had no way of guessing what that reason was though, and knew that if she wasn't being told then asking wouldn't get her any answers.

She left shortly after, slightly downtrodden, but determined. Even if he ignored her, she would continue visiting Sasuke, and she would train hard for when Naruto returned. So far her teammates had done all the hard work, but that was going to change. She didn't know if her team would ever be whole again, but she wasn't giving up until it was.

The sun rose the next day to shed light on Sakura as she slept with her head resting on an open book. The title of the book wasn't visible, but the partially obscured page she'd been reading detailed the anatomy of a ninja, complete with a full map of the chakra network and the various tenketsu points. It would be months if not years before she could put the knowledge to practical use, but it was a start.

Naruto had been genuinely relieved when Tsunade had cleared him to continue using the chi kage bunshin no jutsu. He would have kept using it anyway, but at least he didn't have to fight her over it. The damage incurred was surprisingly minimal, although it apparently caused his red cell count to stay elevated for a week or so; whatever that meant.

Not long after he'd returned to training as usual, unsure what his team's status was with Sasuke and Kakashi more or less confined to the village, but not wanting to waste the time nonetheless. He started to work on kawarimi, but unsurprisingly it was the most difficult. He'd already known an advanced form of both henge and bunshin no jutsu; it hadn't been much of a leap to figure out how to improve them even though it was difficult.

Kawarimi was a whole different story. He honestly thought that it would take him years to work out kawarimi; it was a deceptively simple jutsu. You took an object (usually a log) that was at least a third your size (preferably half), waited until an attack was about to hit you and then switched with the log. If you timed it exactly right, your after-image would appear wounded, giving an extra second before the enemy realized that you were gone.

The disadvantage of kawarimi was that it required knowing the exact location of the target that you were locking onto. On top of that, it had to be close enough for you to reach out to it with your chakra in order to activate the jutsu. It took a few seconds to accomplish this and the switch itself usually took a full second to complete, even if you were very adept at the jutsu.

There was a reason it was an e-rank jutsu. The upside was that it used very little chakra and required little control as well. It was easy to perform, but only effective against an attack that you had time to prepare for.

Naruto had his doubts about whether it was worth it or not to try to improve on kawarimi, but he didn't have any other options really. His control wasn't good enough to improve on Shunshin to combat-readiness (its path was predictable) and unless he miraculously became a seal master and uncovered the secret behind the Hiraishin, the only other option was gaining speed through physical training. He'd have to do that anyway, but he wasn't really built for speed in the first place.

He could always try to find a way to throw the Rasengan at his enemies, but he wasn't holding his breath. So he reluctantly settled for doing what he could with the Kawarimi, but it seemed impossible.

He was still thinking about it and learning how to do the jutsu without seals when Ero-sennin told him they would be leaving the village for two and a half years at the end of the week. He'd explained that there was a group of S-ranked missing nin including Kisame and Uchiha-_fucking_-Itachi that were out to kill him in order to gain possession of the Kyuubi. As an added bonus, Orochimaru was a former member that'd been kicked out.

They needed to leave the village and travel; they'd be harder to track that way. Jiraiya figured they had a little under three years before Orochimaru got desperate enough to make a serious effort to regain Sasuke and Akatsuki would probably need around the same time to complete their preparations.

There was no talk of a pre-emptive strike. It went without saying that they would be on the defensive against a group of s-ranked ninja that traveled in pairs. There simply wasn't enough information to do more than prepare and wait.

So Naruto spent the next few days preparing to leave his home village. Despite his mixed feelings for the Leaf villagers, he found that he would miss the village itself, as well as all the people he'd gotten to know. There were a lot of people by this point (mostly ninja) who treated him just like everyone else, but after the Chuunin exam final and the ensuing battle, some of the civilians had begun to speak of him more positively as well.

It was a nice change and he would miss it. No matter what, Konoha was still his home. He was looking forward to traveling and training with Jiraiya, though. He'd always wanted to see what the world outside the village was like. The few missions he'd taken outside the village hadn't allowed for much exploring.

After saying his goodbyes on the day he would depart, he found himself in front of Kakashi's apartment. He wanted to say goodbye to his sensei, but he still had lukewarm feelings towards Sasuke. He still had nightmares about his teammate's arm impaling him through the heart.

Kakashi answered almost as soon as he knocked, letting him know that the man had sensed him.

"Naruto, it's been awhile. It's good to see you." Kakashi said with a crinkling of his visible eye.

It was rare for Kakashi-sensei to be so demonstrative and Naruto felt slightly guilty for avoiding the man.

He smiled brightly, truly happy to see the older male again. "It's good to see you too, sensei."

At the sound of his voice, Sasuke appeared from the inner room, leaning his shoulder against the wall. He didn't speak and his face was blank, but Naruto had never needed words to understand Sasuke.

Just showing his face was a greeting.

Naruto felt a surprising surge of anger at the sight of the other boy, which surprised him a bit. He hadn't wanted to see Sasuke, but he hadn't been particularly angry with him until now, either. Now he just wanted to wipe the blank look right off the teme's annoyingly calm face.

Before he could act on his impulse though, Kakashi drew his attention back to him.

"I assume you came to say goodbye. Take care on your journey." Kakashi's words were simple, but the expression on his face was unusually serious.

It made Naruto smile. "I will, sensei. Until later." He glanced at Sasuke and turned his back to leave before hesitating.

He turned his head slightly towards the Uchiha that remained still as a statue in the hall.

"I hope the next time we fight will be with only our own strength, as equal Konoha shinobi."

Without waiting for an answer, he disappeared in a whirl of wind, leaving nothing but fluttering leaves in his wake.

Ironically, despite everything that had happened, he was pretty sure that this was the first time he'd used Shunshin in front of Sasuke. He'd never been able to use it in battle and had for whatever reason never seen the point in using it while his team was around. Maybe he'd just wanted to keep part of his life hidden from his two teammates.

He didn't want to answer their questions and he wanted to keep the jutsu that Jiji gave him for himself, as odd as that sounded. Even though Sasuke couldn't copy it since he didn't use the hand-seals for it anymore, he still felt that way.

It was petty to reveal it now just because he knew it would rattle the Uchiha, but he thought he had a right to that small bit of pettiness. After all, he'd already decided to let things rest between them once he came back from this training trip.

That's why he'd mentioned them fighting again. It was an offer of truce. Whether Sasuke would accept it or not was up to him, but regardless of Sasuke's decision he wouldn't mention that battle again or hold it against him. He more than anyone knew that people could change if they chose. Sasuke had nearly three years to decide whether or not he would accept Naruto's challenge, but Naruto was confident he would.


	2. Teamwork

Yay, an update! And soon we shall be departing from canon. I'm looking forward to it.

Disclaimed.

Two and a half years passed swiftly in the village hidden in the leaves. Eventually as the time passed and Sasuke made no effort to escape again, the tight guard on him loosened a bit. He was still tailed by ANBU whenever Kakashi was on a mission and he couldn't leave the village without the jounin's supervision. Even his training was monitored. But it was a far cry from the virtual house arrest he'd been under for the first six months.

Worst of all was that he hadn't been allowed to retest to become a chuunin. It wasn't surprising that a flight risk wouldn't be trusted to become a squad leader, but it still stung when Sakura became a chuunin before him.

Even though she'd become less annoying over the years, she still bothered him constantly every chance she got away from missions and her work at the hospital. He supposed that at least she had become a competent kunoichi while training under the Godaime. She rarely held the team back anymore.

As for Sasuke, while he'd gotten used to living with Kakashi and his weird habits, there was nothing in the village that truly held an interest for him. He rarely talked unless necessary for a mission. Some of the villagers and ninja approached him after awhile with the apparent intention of offering their support, but Sasuke merely sneered at them. _Fools. _If they thought that his desire for vengeance had lessened over time, they were sorely mistaken.

If anything, his desire to take vengeance _himself_ had increased. Naruto's challenge still rang in his ears. How had his idiot teammate managed to become so strong so quickly? He wanted answers and no one but Naruto could give them to him.

He'd asked Kakashi once about the strange red chakra that Naruto had used, but the man had merely responded that it was classified and that only the Godaime or Naruto himself could answer him. Neither of them thought that the Godaime would be forthcoming and Sasuke wouldn't have swallowed his pride long enough to ask Naruto about it even if he had been in the village.

Besides, it didn't really matter. After reviewing their fight at the valley of the end, he concluded that Naruto had produced the bunshin after Sasuke had knocked him into the lake. The _bunshin_ had used the red chakra while Naruto had hung back and observed, waiting for an opening. It made him grit his teeth to realize that a fucking _bunshin_ had fought with him on equal terms.

He wanted, needed, to know how he would do against Naruto when they fought again. His teammate had defeated a Jinchuuriki and even Itachi seemed to recognize the blonde's power. When not even Orochimaru's power had been enough to allow him to defeat Naruto, he had decided on a new goal.

If the snake sannin's power couldn't help him defeat Naruto, then Sasuke would stay in Konoha until he was strong enough to do so himself. If there was one thing about Naruto that had fascinated him, it was the blonde's determination to become stronger through his own effort. Maybe it was that that had allowed him to become strong so quickly.

Regardless, Sasuke would stay in the village, as insufferable as it was, until he could defeat Naruto. He would use the blonde's strength as a way to measure his readiness to take his revenge. Once he could defeat his teammate, he would leave Konoha to seek out Itachi.

He had hesitated after considering the wisdom of trying to train himself while Naruto studied under the Sannin Jiraiya, but his doubt lessened after Kakashi offered to help him train the Sharingan to control the cursed seal.

The silver-haired man had theorized that if Sasuke could strengthen his eyes, then controlling the cursed seal and even using it would be possible without him giving into Orochimaru's influence. Sasuke suspected that Kakashi was teaching him only because he wanted Sasuke to stay in Konoha, a useless endeavor, but he had to admit that the man was an efficient teacher.

It was only when the nightmares started that Sasuke found himself truly grateful for the man's presence. At first he kept quiet about his dreams, but the jounin was perceptive enough to catch on to the change in the Uchiha and eventually confronted him about them.

–

Flashback

"Yo." Came a lazy voice from behind him.

He didn't bother turning around, although he was a bit annoyed that the man still managed to sneak up on him.

"What do you want, Kakashi?" He asked coldly. The man might teach him, but he had little patience for his irksome company most of the time. Especially after completing a grueling training session that left him near exhaustion. He wanted to keep going, but knew better than to risk activating the cursed seal just yet.

"Maa maa, no need to be so unfriendly, Sasuke." The man chided gently.

Sasuke didn't respond, merely waiting for Kakashi to answer him. The trees were turning mottled colors and the wind that stirred them was chill. When he stopped to think about it, the scenery and the overcast sky perfectly suited how he'd been feeling lately.

After more than a minute of tense silence in which neither of them moved, the silver-haired jouin sighed.

"You've been having nightmares about your fight with Naruto." The man said in a clinically detached tone, playfulness forgotten.

Sasuke's neck nearly cracked as he whipped his head around to stare at the older man. His face remained carefully blank, but his shock was betrayed by his wide eyes.

"More specifically about how that battle ended." Kakashi continued in the same tone of voice, his single black eye nearly boring into Sasuke's own.

Sasuke paled slightly. "How-?" he asked harshly.

Kakashi studied him carefully for a moment before lifting up his hitai-ate to display his sharingan eye. The eye spun for a moment before morphing into a three-pronged star.

All pretense forgotten, Sasuke stared at his teacher in something akin to horror.

"Y-you shouldn't have that eye." He said unsteadily.

For a moment he could have sworn that the sharingan eye glared at him.

Kakashi answered slowly, measuring his words carefully.

"The Mangekyo Sharingan can only be attained after experiencing the guilt of killing your best friend. However, it isn't necessary for them to actually die at your hands, only to have the knowledge that you are responsible for their death.

My teammate died protecting me on a mission after I led us into a trap. It was my foolishness that endangered our team. Before he died, he asked the med-nin on our squad to take his eye and give it to me since I'd lost mine in the fighting. It's probably only because I'm not an Uchiha that it took this long for my guilt to activate it."

By the time he was finished his voice was nearly monotone, clearly not happy about discussing how he received his eye.

Afterward he finished speaking he once again covered his eye with a sigh.

"Your nightmares about killing Naruto are a sign that yours is beginning to activate, as well. Even though you know he's not dead, your guilt remains."

Kakashi paused, a dark look that Sasuke couldn't place entering his visible eye for a moment before he continued.

"You'll need to learn how to use it, but I'll caution you beforehand; you should avoid using the Mangekyo unless there's no other alternative. Prolonged use will render you permanently blind."

His tone was flat and Sasuke guessed that the man must already be starting to lose his vision.

He had never wanted to follow in his brother's footsteps in achieving the Mangekyo. He decided that while he would learn to use it out of necessity, he would continue to train using only his sharingan.

After the endless nightmares he'd had of killing Naruto to attain this power, it made him sick just thinking of using it to fight his teammate. He had no compunction about betraying his home village in order to achieve revenge, but that was one line even he wouldn't cross.

-End Flashback

Since that day, Sasuke had rapidly grown in strength, training tirelessly to defeat his teammate. He had kept his promise to himself in regards to the Mangekyo; his skill with the Sharingan was extremely advanced, even to the point that he could easily control the second stage of the cursed seal with it.

He wouldn't admit it even to himself, but part of what drove him to train so feverishly was his desire to defeat Naruto without resorting to using the Mangekyo. He hadn't activated it once since the excruciating training sessions he and Kakashi had engaged in to give him mastery over the cursed power. He would undoubtedly have to continue to train it in the future, but after learning Kamui he felt it best not to push his eyes any further. Fortunately they hadn't sustained any permanent damage from the strain-yet.

Sasuke had to admit that his team members had proved useful in advancing his strength. Kakashi had guided him in improving upon the Chidori while Sakura had willingly chattered on about everything from poison resistance and performance enhancing medicines to advanced genjutsu theory.

Between the two of them and the archives, he doubted there was much that Orochimaru could have taught him that he didn't already have easy access to. He didn't regret his decision to leave the village, but he was forced to conclude that trusting the words of a man like Orochimaru had been foolish at best.

Currently though, he found himself unable to brood along the same lines he usually did as annoyance at his current assignment distracted him. He had been stationed with Izumo and Kotetsu as a gate guard all day and was slowing losing his battle against the urge to throttle the two boisterous nin.

"I told you you shouldn't have stayed out drinking last night, Izumo." Kotetsu admonished the sleepy man beside him. "Just because that girl wanted you to stay and keep buying her drinks was no excuse to drink so much on a work night. What would Raidou-sempai say?"

Izumo meanwhile was cradling his head as he fought to stay awake.

"Shut up, Kotetsu, she was cute and she gave me her number. It was totally worth it."

"You do realize that the area code of the number she gave you wasn't local, right? Either she's not from here, or she totally duped you, man." Kotetsu deadpanned.

Izumo sat up straight, blinking a few times before yelling, "Fuck! I knew she looked just a little too smug when she left the bar!"

Sasuke's eye twitched as he finally lost his patience.

"Will you both _shut up_? We're supposed to be guarding the gate, not discussing your love life." He hissed icily.

Izumo and Kotetsu stared at him and then looked at each other in puzzlement.

"Na, Kotetsu, I may have lost two days worth of wages on that girl, but something gives me the feeling that I'm still having a better day than this guy. What do you think?"

Kotetsu squinted at Sasuke before nodding. "You're right, Izumo, although it is his first day on gate duty. Remember how we were when we started?"

Izumo chuckled and the two nin began reminiscing, completely ignoring Sasuke's demand for silence.

Sasuke, for his part, merely rolled his eyes and looked back to the gate in resignation. He'd learned long ago that loud-mouths would never be quiet no matter how mad you got at them.

Despite his wish for peace and quiet, though, he barely noticed when the two men beside him suddenly fell silent. They were alerted by Sasuke's subtle tensing and immediately ceased the conversation to look for the threat.

Instead of an eneny nin trying to sneak into Konoha, though, all they would see upon looking was a young man in a dark orange jacket with distinctive whisker marks. That along with the ninja's light coloring and hitai-ate were enough for all three nin to immediately recognize the returned shinobi.

Well, that and the giant white-haired sage that accompanied him.

Sasuke sat stock still at the sight of his old teammate. Naruto was looking at the village with an almost wistful gaze, but overall he looked happy. His hair had grown out a little and he'd grown taller as well, lacking the baby fat that had kept him looking like a child even as an experienced genin.

Naruto finally looked over to the guards' station, sensing eyes on him and saw Sasuke staring at him. At first the other boy looked surprised, but after a moment he smiled crookedly in greeting.

"Sasuke! Baa-chan put you on gate duty? What about Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei? Are they around, too?"

Sasuke merely grunted a noncommittal "Hn." while he studied the blonde boy.

He smirked a little when he realized that he was still about an inch taller than Naruto but frowned soon after. Naruto was acting like nothing had happened. He was back to acting like an idiot. Somehow, the thought irked him. _This_ was the person he was training so hard to fight? But, Naruto _had_ changed.

There was a sort of relaxed confidence that he emitted without conscious thought. His eyes took in everything around him even as he looked around goofily for his other teammates. More interestingly, his right hand never strayed more than a few inches from his unbuckled kunai pouch. It was reminiscent of how Sasuke would also subconsciously leave his hand close to the chokuto he kept belted at his waist.

He noted all this almost immediately with his perceptive eyes and filed away the information for later use. One never knew what information about an opponent would come in handy.

Naruto kept scanning the crowd for his other teammates, but there was no sign of them. His enthusiasm was dampened for a moment before he ran up the nearest telephone pole. He looked around in excitement, noting the changes to the village. The damage from the Battle of the Chuunin Exam had been repaired and the village was brimming with prosperity once again.

It was amazing, really. Of all the places he'd been, Konoha remained the most beautiful and peaceful. Even the capital of fire country wasn't as safe (generally) as the village hidden in the leaves. And the forests and fields of Konoha were unrivaled anywhere, in his humble opinion.

It caused a shadow to cross over his face momentarily when he thought about this village being destroyed in order to capture him. He'd seen the havoc wrought by only one ex-Akatsuki. He shuddered to think at the devastation that the whole group could accomplish. He wouldn't allow it to happen. Konohagakure had numerous flaws, but none that deserved such an end.

His cloudy expression disappeared to be replaced by a happy smile at the sight of the person coming down the road towards them. He grinned, eyes twinkling. Anyone who knew that look knew that it spelled trouble; although he'd been quiet in the academy, he'd grown more carefree over the years. He would even go so far as to prank the unsuspecting just for the fun of it.

As the person he'd been spying on grew closer, he suppressed his chakra carefully. It was still extremely difficult to do, but his training to repel genjutsu had definitely helped his stealth abilities.

As the teen drew even with the telephone pole he was on, he jumped down, feet coming within a couple inches of the girl's startled face.

"Hey, Sakura-chan!" He greeted cheerfully, straightening up from his crouch. She was slightly shorter than him now, but that didn't stop the shiver of dread that swept through him at the enraged look on her face.

"Narutoooo!" She went to punch him and he knew he had to evade. Ero-sennin had said to make sure not to get hit by his teammate anymore, since she'd started training under Tsunade. If the old perv was right, this punch could end his life if he was unprepared.

He ended up braced against the telephone pole behind him, the punch that Sakura threw having landed inches above his head. He looked up and his eyes widened. There was a _hole_ the size of Sakura's fist that went straight through the wood behind him. Sakura looked even more enraged at missing, but fortunately her arm was stuck in the wood.

Before either of them could move, there was a loud cracking sound and the telephone pole broke, angling to fall on their heads as the electrical wires pulled it down. Naruto's eyes widened and he dodged to the side, trusting that Sakura would do the same.

The whole scuffle took only a few seconds and ended with them standing on either side of the downed pole, staring at it and then staring at each other. The sober look on Sakura's face was enough to convince him of his temporary safety, and he looked back at Ero-sennin and Sasuke to see their reaction.

As a crowd of muttering civilians started to gather, Ero-sennin merely watched in amusement while Sasuke looked bored, the asshole. Turning back, he saw Sakura blushing the color of her hair at the damage she'd done. It would take awhile to repair the mess.

Feeling a little guilty himself, he nervously tried to change the subject, expertly ignoring the stares and whispering around them.

"N-naa, Sakura-chan, why'd you come down to the gate anyway?"

That seemed to snap the girl out of it as she looked at him in realization.

"Tsunade-sama sent me to summon Sasuke to the Hokage's office. She wants to meet with us... she must have known you were coming." Sakura looked around a little nervously at the frowning townspeople. "L-let's go, she'll be angry if we keep her waiting any longer."

Naruto merely nodded enthusiastically, still ignoring the stares.

With that the group took to the roofs and jumped off for the Hokage Tower.

–

As he sat on the ledge outside the Hokage's office, Kakashi reflected that life was good. For a war vet like him, not having to be constantly deployed was enjoyable and he found that he was glad that he'd left ANBU when he had. People who stayed in that elite corps too long tended to forget how to appreciate the simple pleasures of life.

Like reading Jiraya-sama's books. The tales of simple heroics, vindicated ideals and eternal love (or at least lust) were the stuff of dreams for shinobi in more ways than one. It really wasn't surprising that they were most popular among men that had to cope with such an unforgiving way of life. It was nice to escape for awhile and simply _believe_ that a better world was possible. Jiraiya-sama was a truly talented writer.

Kakashi smothered his perverted chuckle as he reached a particularly lascivious part of the story. Talented indeed.

As to the situation with his students, it wasn't the best but he had faith in them. He was looking forward to seeing how they would fare against him in their test today.

–

Sakura had spent the last two years teaming up with Sasuke, so she knew how to coordinate with him almost perfectly. Naruto, on the other hand, she had no idea how to work with. She had expected to be the support for the two boys (as med-nin usually were), but was surprised when Naruto positioned himself behind her and Sasuke when they faced off against their sensei.

In retrospect, it made sense. It was better for him to support the two of them considering their practiced teamwork, but it also showed how much Naruto had changed. Although he had often surprised her with his ability to strategize in battle, he had also never hesitated to throw himself straight into melee combat. The thought of him hanging back cautiously was as foreign as the look of intense concentration on his face.

She sent him a questioning glance even as she and Sasuke prepared for battle. He merely smiled reassuringly. Then she glanced at Sasuke. He was also staring at their teammate with a raised eyebrow. Silently, sensing her gaze, Sasuke looked at her and shrugged before returning to the task at hand. They needed to be ready the moment the test began.

She shook her head ruefully, as she pulled on the black gloves that would protect her hands as she channeled chakra into them. She had to admit to being a bit disappointed that she would have to wait to see her boys fight together again. They'd always been almost beautiful to watch together; like the sun and moon engaged in a deadly dance.

She grimaced slightly, remembering a time when that easy cooperation had almost morphed into a gruesome death match. There had been something heartbreaking about seeing them turn their easy camaraderie against each other.

She sighed, looking at the treetops for a moment. She could make the excuse that she was checking the way the wind was blowing for the battle, but in reality she needed time to collect herself. The sound of the wind calmed her and she slid into the open stance she favored. Her face was determined. If they ever came to fight like that again, _she_ would be the one to step in, not Kakashi-sensei. She would never feel that kind of helplessness again.

She grinned widely as Kakashi announced the beginning of the test. She made the first move, aiming a punch at Kakashi that she redirected to the ground at the last moment. She jumped back as the ground exploded. At least he wouldn't be able to hide underground now.

The moment she was clear Sasuke took her place, pressing their advantage while Kakashi was still off balance. He had the most experience sparring with Kakashi, so it made sense for him to engage the man directly.

He closed the distance between them with a speed that made her envious, throwing shuriken at the copy-nin point blank and using the moment Kakashi needed to deflect them to jump. He made a perfect arc in the air, ending up behind the man and quickly stabbing him with his lightning covered chokuto. She hadn't seen it, but he'd drawn the medium length sword while still in the air.

His movements were perfectly timed and endlessly graceful, but not quick enough to stop the bunshin he'd stabbed from exploding in lightning chakra. Sasuke's chidori nagashi provided him with some protection, but he was still paralyzed momentarily.

It was all the time Kakashi needed to appear behind his student, aiming a chop at Sasuke's neck that would have removed the raven-haired nin from the battle.

She was barely aware of this though as she sprung forward, knowing that she wouldn't make it in time. Especially when she was distracted by a yellow and orange cannon ball that rocketed past her. She followed closely behind Naruto only to find her arms full of a confused and still paralyzed Sasuke.

She skidded to a stop and blinked at the young man even as he began to push away, regaining the use of his limbs. She let him go and looked over his shoulder as she heard Naruto's clone pop. Her eyes widened.

Only a moment had passed, but that was more than enough time for the explosion to go off. Sasuke must have noticed the reflection of the fire in her eyes, or maybe he'd just felt the heat on his back because he pushed her forward and covered her with his body. Protect the med-nin first.

All she could think as she lay dizzily underneath Sasuke was that there should have been more to herald the inferno than the small popping sound she'd heard. Her teammate pushed himself up as soon as the fire subsided, taking a guard position as she pulled herself to her feet.

She noted gratefully that while the back of his shirt was slightly singed, he hadn't sustained any injuries from the fire.

A sheepish chuckle came from behind her and she craned her neck to see Naruto guarding her back. If he hadn't been occupied scanning the trees for their sensei, she imagined he would have scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Sorry guys, I'm still working on keeping those explosions small."

Sakura's eye twitched. "Naruto..." She growled.

"Sakura." Sasuke's calm voice stopped her before she could punch their teammate into the ground.

"Right." She nodded, falling into position. Her teammates shifted slightly and the three ended up in a triangle formation, backs facing each other. She was still going to kick Naruto's ass later for that stunt.

She frowned though, as she noticed that the fight had already migrated to a patch of solid ground.

That wasn't good.

"Jump." She said simply before she punched the ground beneath her. She didn't think their sensei would be stupid enough to attack from below while she was around, but since none of them were sensors it was better safe than sorry.

When the three landed, their triangle was slightly larger on account of the jagged earth, but at least they knew the area was clear.

"What now?" Naruto piped up.

She was a bit surprised that he asked.

Sasuke was too because he snorted.

"You mean you're _not_ going to charge in and try to fight him by yourself this time?"

Naruto looked affronted. "That was _one _time. When are you guys gonna stop teasing me about that?" He whined, pouting a little.

Sakura laughed. "When you stop getting so offended when we do."

They fell into a companionable silence before Sasuke spoke.

"Since Naruto's unfamiliar with our maneuvers, it'd be best for him to support us with his clones like before. Sakura, you make the best distraction. I'll set you up like usual and then while you're distracting him I'll go for the bell."

Sakura gave a thoughtful frown. "That strategy usually only works on weaker opponents. Shishou warned me that against an equal or stronger opponent, a med-nin should always stay out of the fighting unless they've mastered iryou-ninjutsu to the same extent she has or they have flawless support to guarantee that they're not injured." She looked at Naruto questioningly.

He nodded. "I got you covered." He stated confidently before continuing.

"But that's exactly why he wont target you. He'd have to get past me and Sasuke first. It'd be easier for him to use _you _as a distraction and take out Sasuke since he'll be closest. It'll just end the same as before, unless..."

He drifted off for a second before looking at Sasuke. The raven-haired young man raised an eyebrow at the slow smile spreading across Naruto's whiskered face.

He gestured Sasuke and Sakura forward conspiratorially.

"I've got a plan. Remember how we freed Kakashi-sensei from that water prison? Once you get close enough, Sasuke, feint for the bells. He'll think you're going after them and that's the moment we can get him. Here's what I need you to do..."

Sakura and Sasuke listened closely, both wondering how Naruto would pull off his part. When asked, all he did was smile and say 'You'll see.'

Sakura and Sasuke exchanged a look, Sasuke's expression pensive and Sakura's confused. When Sasuke just shrugged though, Sakura smiled, looking forward to finally beating their sensei. If both Sasuke and Naruto were confident that the plan would succeed, then it would.

–

Kakashi waited while his students planned a course of action. Usually he would set traps or go on the offensive since he couldn't leave the area, but with Naruto's clones constantly combing the forest, that wasn't an option. So instead he flitted around the area avoiding clones and waiting for their attack. That's when he'd have the best chance to catch them off guard.

Finally, they started moving towards the area he was in. One of Naruto's clones must have spotted him after all. There were just too bloody many of them to avoid completely in the small area.

He created a clone and sunk into the earth. He wouldn't be able to attack that way because of Sakura, but he could still hide until he figured out what their strategy was. That's what kage bunshin was supposed to be for; reconnaissance.

Not long after the fighting began, he sensed Naruto pause for a moment. He would have sighed if he wasn't buried in the ground. Of course the bunshin had been spotted. Trying to use a bunshin against Naruto was like relying on the Sharingan in a taijutsu match with Sasuke; a waste of time.

Sasuke would have already beaten him at taijutsu if it wasn't for his experience.

He felt Sakura's chakra build up and practically flew out of the ground before shattered around him. The genin were going to have a field day cleaning this mess up. And it looked like he'd have to figure out what they were planning directly. The mischievous gleam in Naruto's eyes didn't bode well.

Sasuke launched himself at him first, engaging him in a taijutsu fight while Sakura positioned herself to attack him.

He knew this tactic of theirs; he also knew that it wasn't supposed to be used against a stronger opponent. He readied a kawarimi for when Sakura attacked, knowing it would be no more than a distraction. What worried him more at the moment was that Naruto was still hanging back.

He blocked one more kick from Sasuke as they both jumped back out of the way of Sakura's deadly punch. As he had earlier, Sasuke used the temporary lull to attack, rapidly forming hand-seals. The boy formed the seals for the Goukyaku no jutsu and Kakashi smoothly activated the kawarimi he'd prepared previously.

Naruto's clones chose the same moment to attack and he whipped out a kunai, dancing around the clones and dispelling them left and right. As he slammed the ring of one of his kunai into the back of a clone's head he noticed that the clones weren't fighting back seriously. They were trying to herd him towards Sasuke with sheer numbers. He jumped back a bit towards Sasuke to create some room, well aware that he had only a moment to complete his jutsu before Sasuke would be on him.

Using his best speed, he released a Goukyaku as well, destroying the clones before flipping out of the way immediately before Sasuke could capture the bell. The boy's hand would come within an inch of the jingling metal strapped to his waist, but wouldn't touch it.

He was surprised, though, when mid-lunge Sasuke's hand flicked to his waist before launching a kunai directly at Kakashi's face. It was too close for him to do more than tilt his head away as he landed out of arms reach, eyeing Sasuke warily. He froze though, both eyes widening as he felt cool metal touch his neck.

His Sharingan spun wildly as his mind raced. No one had managed to get behind him like this since Minato. He sensed Naruto's chakra and knew the boy hadn't snuck up on him. He would have sensed a shunshin as well. It was as if he'd appeared from nowhere, but...

_'The kunai.'_

He furrowed his brow even as he prepared to escape. It wasn't a Hiraishin kunai. And it wasn't a henge like the two boys had used in wave, either. Henge didn't change something's mass, Sasuke couldn't have thrown the kunai so easily if it'd been a henge of Naruto or one of his clones.

He needed to hurry. Although he knew Naruto wouldn't kill him, he'd give them the victory based solely on managing to surprise him so thoroughly. For now, though, Sakura was barreling down on him with all the fury of her mentor and he didn't particularly want to end up in the hospital. He went there often enough as it was.

A lightning quick shunshin had him out of the way moments before Sakura's blow would have hit. It took only a moment for him to realize that the bell was gone. He looked over to see Sasuke palming it like a pickpocket with a satisfied smirk on his face.

They'd made it work. Sakura had distracted him long enough for Sasuke to get the bell. Granted they'd needed Naruto to keep him still long enough to close the distance, but he was still extremely proud of all three of them.

His eye crinkled up. "...You pass." He announced cheerfully.

Sakura grinned, Naruto started bouncing around like a ping-pong ball, unable to contain his excitement and even Sasuke gave a small smile.

"Now go and get some rest. We'll meet at the missions office tomorrow at nine to take our first mission as Team Kakashi."

–

It should not have been so quiet. The desert, for all its harshness, was rarely, if ever silent. The lack of trees always made the quiet sounds more audible. The shuffling of nocturnal animals at night, the slow shifting of the sand dunes. All the sounds of the desert became roars in the silence.

But even the quiet sounds of desert life were cut off this night and for the first time in many years the desert seemed truly dead despite the people occupying it. Baki mused that it was appropriate that the desert too should be silenced by the Kazekage's sacrifice.


	3. Difference

Short chapter, I know, but I wanted to post what I have. It might be a couple days before I can work on the next ch. I've got a lot written out for this story, but most of that is for the fight with Nagato and after. I've still got to get through everything before that, so I'll probably leave out scenes that are the same as in canon. Hope that doesn't bug anyone.

Good news is that I have some great plot twists up ahead, starting next chapter. : ) Bad news is that I am now discontinuing all other fics of mine except for Joys of Possession and Mimesis. They are, unfortunately, on hiatus because I'm more inspired for this story right now. And I think these three stories have the most promise, so I'm gonna stick with only them. Feel free to send me a PM if you want to adopt one or use the plot in your own story, I'd like to see them not go to waste.

Anyway, this is mostly Sasuke's perspective. His perspective is useful and fun to write, so look forward to more chapters like this. Don't worry though, we'll be getting back to Naruto soon and after the battle with Nagato there will be some serious character development for the other characters. I'm looking forward to writing that. Hope you enjoy the story so far, and I'm all for suggestions, so feel free to drop me a line. -Sade

Disclaimed.

He looked ahead stoically, but didn't fail to notice the way Sakura fidgeted to his right. The two of them formed the flanks of the rhomboid formation while Kakashi took up the back. Naruto, for his part, was bounding up ahead of them and Sasuke could easily imagine the look of grim determination on his face. He'd been like that since they'd gotten the news that Akatsuki had captured the Kazekage Gaara. Naruto had immediately demanded that they be sent to help with the retrieval and Tsunade hadn't denied him.

After a short stop in Suna to treat Gaara'a brother, they had quickly set off at a punishing pace set by Naruto. He was mildly impressed by the endurance shown by the old woman Chiyo who moved at the center of the rhombus. Tactically it made sense, but the cynical part of him was glad that Kakashi was keeping an eye on her from behind.

Sakura finally seemed to reach a decision and spoke, "...Jinchuuriki?"

Chiyo had called Gaara that a few tense moments before and Sasuke hadn't missed the way Naruto had flinched slightly at the unfamiliar word. Of course, he wasn't stupid. He'd fought both Gaara and Naruto at their most enraged and had an idea as to the source of their power.

Chiyo looked at Kakashi incredulously.

"They don't know of the Jinchuuriki? What have you been teaching them?"

"Speaking of the bijuu is discouraged in Konoha, especially around the younger generation."

He replied mildly, shrugging.

Chiyo cackled a bit. "You shelter your children from the harsh realities of the world."

Kakashi merely shrugged again, choosing not to respond. Meanwhile Sasuke fought not to clench his fists at the hag's condescension.

Shaking her head, Chiyo finally deigned to answer Sakura's question.

"The jinchuuriki are those who have had bijuu sealed into them. Since the founding of the villages they have been used in every war. The devastation they can cause is unmatched."

At the beginning of the impromptu lesson Naruto had kicked off a branch harshly, causing the wood to groan as he shot ahead, breaking their formation.

Chiyo looked at Kakashi questioningly after she'd finished speaking.

Kakashi sighed, for once not shrugging off the question as was his wont to do.

"It's Naruto's dream to become Hokage. Naruto understands Gaara's feelings better than any of us can."

No one missed the thinly veiled emphasis on the last words.

Sasuke barely noticed the look of comprehension on Chiyo's face as he sped up to close the gap between him and Naruto. The rest of the team followed behind him.

Naruto slowed down as they approached him until they'd once again fallen into formation. The group continued in silence until Naruto spoke. Obviously he'd heard the conversation despite the distance.

"The Third's law is still in effect, Kakashi-sensei." He said pointedly.

The man in question raised his visible eyebrow.

"Planning to report me?" He asked lazily.

Naruto just snorted and shook his head.  
"I was planning on telling them anyway, if they haven't already guessed."

He jumped down from his branch, leading them into a clearing.

After turning to them abruptly, he spoke with a grimly serious expression on his normally cheerful features.

"The Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi into me the day I was born."

His determined expression from earlier hadn't wavered, but there was an odd inflection on the word 'Yondaime' that Sasuke couldn't quite pin down.

"Akatsuki is seeking to extract the bijuu from the jinchuuriki. That's why they took Gaara and why they'll eventually come for me as well."

Sakura looked horrified, before asking worriedly, "Wouldn't it be a good thing though, to be rid of the Kyuubi?"

Naruto gave her an unreadable look before Chiyo responded. "The role of Jinchuuriki is one that's chosen for life, girl. Whenever a bijuu in extracted to be placed inside a new host, the previous jinchuuriki dies. Once their chakra network adjusts to the bijuu's chakra, they can no longer survive without it."

The look of horror on Sakura's face returned strongly, but this time it was joined by a sheen of tears that filled the girl's eyes.

"That's too cruel..."

It was cruel, but Sasuke couldn't ignore the part of him that was more focused on Itachi's role in all this.

He finally knew why Itachi had targeted Naruto a few years prior. He'd been frustrated that Itachi would come after Naruto while casually tossing him aside like he was nothing. But it turned out that Itachi wasn't after Naruto at all, but rather what was inside him.

He also couldn't completely ignore the small voice in his head whispering that it was a good thing he'd stayed with team 7: Naruto would lead him straight to Itachi.

With a start, he realized that he'd lost focus on the conversation for a moment and turned his attention back to the group. Sakura had started crying in earnest and Naruto stared at her in something akin to awe before his jaw clenched and his eyes flashed.

"No." He said quietly. "Gaara's the one who was betrayed by the person he trusted the most. Gaara's the one who was driven to madness when he was only a child. He finally got a chance, his siblings accepted him and eventually his village accepted him. He became Kazekage. And now those bastards are trying to take it all away as if it's nothing. Why do all the bad things happen to Gaara, why only him?"

By this time Naruto was crying too, tears trailing down his cheeks around his painfully clenched teeth. Sasuke realized with a start that he'd never seen Naruto cry before. It was like an unspoken promise between them, that neither of them would show such weakness. He suddenly felt humbled by his friend that was able to cry for another while Sasuke had only been able to concentrate on his brother this entire time.

Naruto wiped his tears quickly and turned away.

"Thay's why we've got to hurry and save him."

And without another word he took off, faster than before.

The rest of the team hurried after him in silence, no one daring to suggest again that they slow down. He looked at Chiyo, who was staring at Naruto with eyes a little too wide, like she couldn't figure out what to make of the boy. Sasuke repressed a snort with some difficulty. If he had a Ryo for every person he'd seen look at Naruto that way, he'd be richer than the Fire Daimyo.

–

When he'd thought that Naruto would lead him to his brother, he hadn't expected it to be on this mission. Seeing his parricidal brother under these circumstances was not what he was planning. It was only the memory of what happened last time that kept him from charging directly at the fucker and stabbing him through the heart with Chidori. He didn't particularly want to get his wrist broken again.

For all the rationality he was clinging to, though, he could feel his pupils whirling.

Kakashi smoothly took point from Naruto, quietly whispering orders from behind his mask.

"Don't look him in the eyes, no matter what. Sasuke, watch out for Tsukuyomi. And whatever you do, do not use _that_. This is a retrieval mission, his only purpose here is to delay us."

Sasuke hesitated briefly before nodding slightly. He wouldn't be able to fight Itachi properly with his teammates around, anyway. This was why he'd wanted to leave the village three years ago.

–

Itachi surveyed the Leaf nin arrayed before him. Interesting. He hadn't expected Sasuke to stay loyal to the Leaf for this long. Even looking at his brother's enraged expression, he could still tell that Sasuke had found something to live for beyond revenge. He frowned slightly. It seemed that he would have to once again _encourage_ his brother to seek him out. He was running out of time to die by his precious otouto's hand.

He noticed that the jinchuuriki Naruto was looking at Sasuke with concern, ignoring him entirely. That wouldn't do, the boy was his target, after all. He moved his finger, attracting the blonde's attention and easily catching him in a genjutsu.

As the boy bumbled forward drawing his teammates' attention, Itachi blurred into shunshin. He appeared behind Sasuke, reaching for his neck even as his brother turned his head towards him. In his surprise, he would surely make eye contact.

Itachi blinked, the only visible sign of his surprise as Naruto-kun appeared in front of him in a puff of smoke. The boy latched onto his arm, staring fearlessly into his eyes and grinning madly.

Itachi analyzed the situation. The blonde was even now trying to break free of his genjutsu. _'Kage bunshin.'_

"Do it, Sasuke."

A chirping sound could be heard from the other side of the clone, and Itachi swiftly palmed a kunai with his free hand, slitting the clone's throat and jumping out of range.

It seemed that Naruto-kun had found a way to henge his clones into a small enough form to be carried by his teammates. Interesting.

Naruto-kun had been released from the genjutsu and the Leaf-nin had retreated to the safety of the trees. A tactically sound strategy, but one that would have made it easier to hunt them individually if it weren't for Kakashi-sempai's mist.

He contented himself with waiting for their next move. It was unlikely now that he would get another chance to catch Sasuke in Tsukuyomi. He wasn't worried, though. His brother's pride would cause him to seek Itachi out, especially after having to be saved by his teammate.

He didn't last long. Kakashi engaged him directly while Sasuke flitted about the battlefield, successfully splitting his focus. In the end, though, it was Naruto-kun who used an impressively large Rasengan to end him.

In a dank cave some distance away, an astral projection of Uchiha Itachi opened his eyes and smiled. Perfect. It wouldn't be long before he'd get to see his brother in person once again.

–

Naruto reluctantly agreed to rest for a couple hours. They sat around the hastily built campfire, the tension in the air palpable. Once again, Sakura was the one to break the silence.

"Naruto...before, too, you caught Kakashi-sensei by surprise. What was that?"

The girl asked curiously.

Naruto had been frowning into the fire in consternation, obviously thinking about Gaara.

He looked over at Sakura, scratching his head.

"Oh, that? That's my kage kunai. It's a bunshin henge'd into a kunai. They can perform kawarimi with regular kunai. I switched out your guys' kunai with kage kunai earlier."

He pulled out four kunai, one of which was obviously old and worn, bearing the wicked curve of Suna's kunai from the second war.

Chiyo raised an eyebrow, pulling out an identical kunai and then cackling a bit in amusement. She pocketed it, accepting her old memento from the precocious youth. Kakashi eye-smiled while Sakura just looked vaguely confused.

Sasuke, however narrowed his eyes as 'his' kunai was returned to him. Not even bothering to activate his sharingan, he threw the kunai into the fire. Ignoring Naruto's slight flinch, he got up and walked away from the camp.

A moment later, Naruto got up and followed him. The others didn't stop him.

He found Sasuke angrily sharpening his kunai. He watched him for awhile before sitting down facing away from the other boy.

"The person I need to surpass is my dad." He began slowly, ignoring the glare he could almost see as the sounds of metal against metal increased in intensity.

"He had a flee on sight order issued against him by the time he was twenty. He was a natural born genius by anyone's standards and arguably the most powerful man without a kekkei genkai to ever live."

The sharpening sounds stopped.

"Yondaime Hokage...?" Sasuke asked, voice sounding disbelieving.

Naruto nodded shortly, although his companion couldn't see.

A note of wistfulness entered into his voice as he continued.

"I met him on my training trip when my seal got screwed up. It was just for a few minutes, but...he said he believed in me. He entrusted me with Konoha's safety." He hesitated before continuing, grimacing a little.

"I'm not a genius by a long shot. All I've managed to do is create a couple tricks that'll only work once, if that. But, maybe if that can buy you a moment when you need it, it'll be worth it."

He got up, flicking a kage kunai that embedded itself in the ground near Sasuke's bent knee. He started walking away, only to stop momentarily.

"You shouldn't hold back on my account. If you really need to use _that_, I wont hold it against you."

And with that, he walked away, leaving a wide-eyed Sasuke in his wake.

–

When they finally made it into the hideout, it was to find Sasori and Deidara standing arrogantly over Gaara's body, carelessly arguing about art. Naruto's already fraying patience snapped, and he chased a taunting Deidara out of the hideout. After admonishing them to stay together, Kakashi followed.

Sasuke found himself facing a crazy puppet master who played around with dead bodies in his free time. Creepy.

Chiyo explained that even a single misstep would be the end for someone facing Sasori, and Sasuke prepared himself to put his reflexes to the test.

He never got the chance. Instead, a large orange-haired man barreled into him faster than he could react, throwing him over his shoulder out of the entrance to the cave.

_'I didn't sense him...'_

He landed on his feet, only to dodge a water justu that would have knocked him out.

_'There shouldn't be enough water for a jutsu of that size...'_

He took stock of his surroundings. He was obviously being herded towards the forest and away from the others. But judging by the look of things, a whole team was after him, so he didn't think he had time to worry about Sakura and Chiyo. He would never admit it, but Sakura had better reflexes that he did.

The orange-haired brute was coming at him again. Sasuke easily avoided his attacks while looking for the rest of the team. He saw nothing but the puddle of water and quickly summoned water to his eyes. As expected, the water held far more chakra than it should, even after being used for a jutsu.

_'Same strategy as the demon brothers...must be a Mizu kekkei genkai...'_

Orange jumped back, apparently trying to lure Sasuke into position to be ambushed by the water...man. Sasuke held back a smirk as he allowed himself to be maneuvered into position. The water predictably rose to engulf him only to freeze as Sasuke let off a full body Chidori.

The puddle melted back the ground and Sasuke's smirk finally showed itself.

The smirk disappeared as he barely dodged the Orange man's enlarged arm.

_'Like Chouji on steroids...'_

It seemed that Sasuke had managed to piss the big man off. He continued to dodge, watching for traps that the man's teammate's had set. A red-haired girl was dragging the partially formed water man away from the battlefied.

_'Medic, probably...'_

But that still left the team leader.

Sasuke finally lost patience with the psycho he was fighting and lopped off the man's arm. If the man was going to shove it in his face so much, he was practically begging to lose it.

And of course, that's when the team leader decided to show herself.

She appeared at his side, reaching out to touch him with a bare hand.

_'Contact jutsu, jounin, almost as fast as Kakashi..."_

Her face sported a cocky smile and Sasuke didn't hesitate to use the same tactic he'd used on the water man. Before she was electrocuted, she shunshin'ed away and Sasuke cursed. He needed to hurry. Parts of the cave were caving in and he still hadn't had contact from either Kakashi or Gai's team.

He turned on his Sharingan again. He would need it to deal with her quickly.

A moment later he was on the ground, coughing up blood. He'd managed to avoid the worst of the hit, but he'd broken at least one rib.

_'Dammit, why can't I sense him..?'_

The orange man had hit him from behind, his arm just as large and powerful as it'd been before. Scarily enough, the man looked even more enraged, his wild eyes practically rolling as his body bulged and changed. It reminded Sasuke of the cursed seal level two, the darkened skin especially.

_'He reattached and healed it that quickly...'_

Freaks. That probably meant they worked for Orochimaru. He didn't think it was exactly the same as the cursed seal, though, His own seal wasn't reacting to the man's presence.

But he needed a plan. The other two were probably out of the battle for the time-being. He'd need to deal with these two now. He jumped back, disappearing into the trees. He smirked. He'd need a little distance for this.

–

Sasuke stood in the clearing, panting. Only a few minutes had passed, but he was exhausted. The Orange-haired man had as much stamina as Naruto and the jounin bitch kept randomly trying to touch him. She hadn't even seriously tried to fight, but she was good enough to both keep him from killing the mad man and exploit every opportunity to get close to him.

_'She must have come up with a counter to my Chidori.'_

He didn't really want to find out for sure, which left him dodging, waiting for the right moment to put his plan into action.

Finally he managed to create some distance from the two and land in a good spot. He immediately let loose a series of kunai on a complicated trajectory. Some of them bounced off of others, while all of them hit his intended targets.

The forest exploded around them and Sasuke used the distraction to send a large fireball roaring towards the two nin. They were effectively trapped by fire on all sides, leaving no path to escape. Sasuke wasn't taking any chances though. He switched with the kage bunshin he'd created to set the explosive tags and headed back to the cave. Hopefully it would keep them distracted long enough for him to help the others. He moved through the forest, carefully skirting around the other two nin as they ran to help their teammates. Only his clone stayed in the clearing long enough to see the huge crystal that had formed in the heart of the fire.

–

Sakura was slowly but surely helping Chiyo walk to Gaara. She was exhausted, but she wanted to fulfill the old woman's last request.

Suddenly Sasuke appeared on the other side of Chiyo, helping the older woman to walk.

"We need to hurry. I've distracted the Oto team for now, but my clone wont last long. Where's Sasori?"

Sakura's eyes widened. The spy that Sasori spoke of became a lot more valuable if Orochimaru was already trying to capture Sasuke again.

Chiyo was the one to answer.

"Dead. We need to get to Gaara's body."

Sasuke sent Sakura a questioning glance. She shook her head once and shifted the woman's weight on her shoulder. Sasuke did the same and they took off to catch up with their teammates.

–

Sasuke stared. In all the years he'd known Naruto, he'd never seen him cry. He was always smiling and laughing, seemingly propelled by inexhaustible faith and determination. It was something that Sasuke both envied and despised. It reminded him of how he'd been before the massacre and part of him hated that weak, naïve boy.

Especially since for all his naivete, Naruto was far from weak.

So it rattled Sasuke to see his teammate break down like this, weeping over Gaara's body like a child. Even as he and the others kept watch for the Oto team, he could see that they were affected, too and even Gai-sensei had an uncharacteristically grim expression on his face.

Even Neji's usually stark features were softened in empathy.

Sasuke, for his part, kept his expression closed off as he watched. Once Naruto finished yelling and started weeping in earnest, he turned his back, no longer wishing to see the sight. A part of him wanted to kick the idiot's ass for bawling in the middle of a mission, but the memory of his own mourning after his clan's death kept him rooted in place. So instead he kept watch, and if anyone noticed that he'd had his sharingan activated the whole time, they didn't mention it.

A few minutes later he stared again as the tired but living Kazekage was surrounded by happy Suna-nin. He looked as Naruto. His was smiling, obviously relieved that his friend was alive. Sasuke knew him well enough, though, to catch the wistfulness in his expression.

Gaara was no longer a Jinchuuriki. He was Kazekage and he had the love of his siblings and village. His happiness when he congratulated Gaara, though, that was sincere. Yet another quality that Sasuke didn't share with the blonde. He'd give anything to be able to bring his loved ones back to life, and freely acknowledged his jealousy of the situation. That combined with Orochimaru's renewed interest in him merely reinforced his determination...he would have to leave the village and seek out Itachi soon.

–


End file.
